The Perfect Notebook Computer

Darn, I was in hopes that you'd found it. I'm looking too, I'm interested to see what everyone has to say.

I assume notebook is Americanese for laptop?

I have an acer something-or-other. 160HD, 1gb RAM (sheesh...with Vista? Crap). I use MS Office 2007.

Also an acer aspire netbook, thankfully with the XP OS, 2gb RAM and a similar-sized HD.

More like the netbook I think, Scarlet. Little bitty laptops. Light, easy to transport. I think they'd be handy as heck when you're traveling. It drives me nuts to go somewhere and not be able to get a little writing done when the alternative is being bored to death, waiting for time to pass.

That's why I love my acer aspire. And the battery power on those things is amazing.

Trouble is, WiFi = timesucker.

Yeah, staying out of here would probably get my story finished.

Yeah, clarify... we talking about a laptop or netbook? Also, are you looking to replace your desktop or add to the collection?

For the past year or two I've been using a Fujitsu Lifebook as my only computer. I like it quite a lot. It's on the small, compact side of laptops, which is great for traveling (from city to city or just from one room to another in the house). It also has a screen that you can flip around and close over the keyboard so that the screen is face-up, and you can use it with a stylus either portrait or landscape style. I use this for brainstorming or surfing the internet when my hands get sore from too much use.

I use a MacBook as my sole computer. Years ago I had a laptop and a desk computer, but the desktop became less and less important. Macs are pricey but fairly rugged. I usually get four or five years out of a Mac without repairs, and by the time it needs repairs, you can't get parts for the damn thing.

I went into Macs before Microsoft came up with anything more than DOS, and although I don't see a lot of difference between the systems these days, I still find trouble a bit easier to solve on the Mac. Networking is a lot easier and WiFi is a delight. I believe that free WiFi is a constitutional right, and frequently can find someone I can log on through. Despite extensive traveling on occasion, I've never felt the need for a paid service. (Panera Bread is a wonderful business, by the way. Food's good and the WiFi easy.)

Mac came up with a new design for the electric plug which is magnetic. It has been incredibly rugged, and is one of the weakest points on a lot of laptops.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

I use Dell's which I have always found reliable, cheap, and they have good customer service. I also got a fun little dock with my new laptop. My last two computers before this one were Dell's, and my family uses them as well, and we've never really had any issues. My previous computer last about four years, and technically it still works and I can still use it. I wanted a new one because a) it was starting to make an odd noise and I was thinking it probably wouldn't make it through another year, and b) because I wanted something with more ram and a better processor.

The new one I have is pretty maxed out (better than my friend's desktop, and his is only a year old), and I was able to customize it for my personal needs. I also love the service there. I was able to arrange for a computer that I had found on the Japanese site (didn't want the Japanese operating system), and even more awesome they helped me apply a discount that helped me cut off about three hundred dollars from the price and actually managed to get me a better deal on memory than I would have had before.

The only thing I would warn about is their payment plan...well, any payment plan when it comes to computers. It's very easy to end up paying double the cost in interest, and I've known people who have. I always pay for mine upfront so it isn't a problem.

scarletpeaches said:

I assume notebook is Americanese for laptop?

I have an acer something-or-other. 160HD, 1gb RAM (sheesh...with Vista? Crap). I use MS Office 2007.

Also an acer aspire netbook, thankfully with the XP OS, 2gb RAM and a similar-sized HD.

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i say laptop too. i thought notebook was a brand name, but i don't know.

the one i'm on at present is a toshiba. i love it...but i love my older one more. i'm sticking with these two, because i hate hate hate the new screens that look like glass....they're shiny. mine aren't shiny and that's the way i like it. i'm afraid all the new ones may be the kind i don't like.

Yeah, that's the really irritating thing with my Compaq laptop. Shiny screen, so it's impossible to work with outside and difficult in a bright room.

You can buy a plastic film to put over it that will cut the glare, but I haven't bothered yet.

I love my MacBook, so you have my endorsement. I've had the MBP (the earliest 1.8GHz version) for four years now and it still works great. I've NEVER had a PC laptop that lasted this long (the way I use/abuse my computers). The MacBook is pretty much out of the box experience with almost everything you need. But do get iWork if it's not already bundled. It's much smaller and easier to use than MS Office for the Mac (iWork works fine with MS documents such as Word or Excel); also a PDF writer is built into the OS.

Also, the Mac can run Windows, so you don't have to give up your old Windows programs.

Although with Windows 7 out, I'm kind of interested in getting a cheap netbook (about $300) for travel and writing, because of size and weight. They're still a bit too small to do everything I need to do, but for travel, etc. it's a good alternative -- and then I just plug everything back to the MBP.

If the only thing you want a notebook for is writing, you might consider an AlphaSmart instead. It's essentially a Palm-powered word processing device with a full-sized keyboard (sans number pad). And VERY durable -- they're also made for kids to use at school.

AlphaSmarts don't have all the software and 'net access that make great distractions....just word processing software and a few other tools (like calendar, memos, calculator). You can shoot your MS back and forth between your AlphaSmart and your computer (desktop, laptop, or notebook). The screen is perfectly easy to read indoors or out. The Dana model (which is what I have) has a larger screen and a battery life of about 25 hours, while the Neo model has a smaller screen and a battery life of something like 700 hours (not a typo--seven hundred hours).

If you do need apps beyond word processing, a notebook is a better choice. But check it out. I loves me AlphaSmart!

scarletpeaches said:

I assume notebook is Americanese for laptop?

I have an acer something-or-other. 160HD, 1gb RAM (sheesh...with Vista? Crap). I use MS Office 2007.

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Vista ran like a dog on my little Asus - Windows 7. Runs lovely.

KTC said:

i say laptop too. i thought notebook was a brand name, but i don't know.

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Notebook and Laptop refer to the same thing. No brand name attached. "Notebook" is the more technical term while "Laptop" if the more common name.

OP: As per your last post, I then suggest a reasonably good laptop. If you don't game, then I recommend you stick to integrated graphics.

For various reasons, I almost never recommend a Mac unless you can pay for it. With Windows 7 out, I strongly recommend getting a PC based laptop with Win 7 but it's your choice.

Good luck. It can take forever to find your perfect computer. It took me a year.

I'd have to go with the MacBook. I've had one since they first came out in 2006, never had a problem with any of 'em, and when I upgrade, it'll probably be to one of the 13" MacBook Pros.

Terie said:

If you do need apps beyond word processing, a notebook is a better choice. But check it out. I loves me AlphaSmart!

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If the screen could display more than six lines of text, I'd be interested.

The small screen can be an advantage; I remember discussing this with KTC a couple of years back. It stops us going back, reading over, fiddling, editing.

At least...it did 'til I got my lovely netbook.

I have an Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue 8930. C2D 2Ghz, 4 Gb Ram, 9600GTS 1 Gb Ram, 320HD. Excellent for writing (It has a normal 101 keyboard, with a numeric pad included) and also it's an excellent multimedia computer with inbuilt 5.1 Dolby Home Theatre surround system, 18.4 16:9 WCG HDTV display up to 1920x1080 (Excellent for Blue Ray movies), inbuilt camera, WIFI and everything what a high-tech desktop computer ever had. Even the sound control have a small control keyboard. It's a bit large, but if you're traveling for a longer time and i.e. you want a small home theater into the hotel, this beauty is also perfect for this.

So this laptop is definitely not just for writing. I'm using also to make arts, it's also perfect for gaming, but it's a truth worthy beauty, which deserves it's name as it's really a little Blue Gemstone. It's an elegant and powerful Jaguar between the laptops.

That is a droolworthy piece of machinery. *swoons*

scarletpeaches said:

The small screen can be an advantage; I remember discussing this with KTC a couple of years back. It stops us going back, reading over, fiddling, editing.

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It also makes it unnecessarily difficult to refer to earlier material in order to avoid unnecessary continuity errors. And if you need to make sure your characters are using a particular bit of ordnance correctly, forget about being able to google it.

Continuity errors! Good god, Plus One is full of them. That's what you get for copying tt42 and writing a novel out of sequence I guess.

/derail off

Freelancer said:

I have an Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue 8930. C2D 2Ghz, 4 Gb Ram, 9600GTS 1 Gb Ram, 320HD. Excellent for writing (It has a normal 101 keyboard, with a numeric pad included) and also it's an excellent multimedia computer with inbuilt 5.1 Dolby Home Theatre surround system, 18.4 16:9 WCG HDTV display up to 1920x1080 (Excellent for Blue Ray movies), inbuilt camera, WIFI and everything what a high-tech desktop computer ever had. Even the sound control have a small control keyboard. It's a bit large, but if you're traveling for a longer time and i.e. you want a small home theater into the hotel, this beauty is also perfect for this.

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How far can you stretch the battery?

MGraybosch said:

How far can you stretch the battery?

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Approximately 3 hours 30-45 minutes if you run it on minimum config (It has a nice inbuilt Acer energy saver control panel where you can define how you'd like to use it in the Vista without any restart. For writing, the minimum configuration is perfect. In this case I also used to use some sort of music player in the background and in that case the computer already using the 5.1, and few other stuff is also used to run in the background that are using the computer. So maybe it's more if I wouldn't run these things in the background. For me this used to be the average, but maybe if I would shut down some stuff in it what I never use, maybe it would go above 4 hours. As for its maximum capability, when the CPU, the Video Card is at maximum, and the LCD is at maximum brightness, in that case its 2 hours, 2 hours 15 minutes as I experienced, but when I use it on maximum I always use it without battery.). The full battery recharge is app. 30-45 minutes. For me, that app. 3h30m is usually enough. So it has an average or a bit above average battery time in this category (High-tech Multimedia Laptops).

I never tried it with Windows 7, only with the inbuilt Vista 32, but maybe that would give a different result... maybe not.